A sparkly new project

So why haven’t I been posting much recently?  Good question and one I’ve discussed with other blogging friends over a cuppa and cake.  I think the simple answer is that I don’t think I’ve been doing much you’d be interested in.  Don’t get me wrong I’m still sewing and knitting, but it’s mainly stuff you’ve seen before.  I mean how many posts with a pair of plain socks on are you actually going to find interesting?

buttons watremark

Then it hit me… You might be interested in my new photographic project.  Why?  Well if I say that I’ve nicknamed it the ‘Crafting Project’ would that perk your interest?  It did!  Fantastic, then let me explain.

fibre platts watermark

As you know I’m a keen crafter and also a keen photographer.  The photographer in me finds that I love working on projects with my camera just as much as in crafting.  So I’ve decided to start a photographic project looking at crafting.  I’m hoping to explore all sorts of aspects of this fantastic hobby/way of life.  No doubt my long suffering friends, who are now fairly used to me confiscating their tea and cake for shots, will soon get fed up of me pointing my lens at their knitting needles.  Hehe let the fun begin.

Show of Hands

This last week I fulfilled one of the items on my ‘tick sheet’ of things to do.  You know the sort of lists – 101 things I want to try with apple sauce before I die.  Anyway this item was to see the band Show of Hands in concert.  Despite being a fan for years I’ve never managed to be in the right place at the right time to see them before.  So when I heard they would be playing only 15 miles from my home I had my ticket booked within minutes.

I went with my good friend Miss J and we had a ball.  Naturally I wanted to take my camera and take some shots.  I always worry about this as I know many venues can get funny.  It’s impossible to confiscate a mobile phone because it has a camera on it, but, well……  My camera is a DSLR and stands out a lot more.

Anyway I tried to take my shots without annoying anyone (after all they’d paid for their tickets as well), or drawing attention from anyone who might ask me to leave.  I didn’t take that many but the results are up above.  Hopefully the slide show is working and you can see them.  Now I’m looking forward to my next concert (next week) and hoping I can get my camera in there as well Smile

Exploring the Hidden Realm

I don’t often post the same stuff on both my photography and crafting blogs, but last week I went on an Urbex trip with some fellow photographers and decided to document part of the shoot with a time lapse video.  Urbex in case you’re wondering stands for ‘Urban Exploration’ and usually refers to exploring abandoned or forgotten places.  I’ve played about with time lapse before on my mobile using free apps (such as Lapse It) but this time I decided to use my back up DSLR and up the anti so to speak.  My main reason for being there was to take some more shots for my ‘Ghost Project’.

Anyway I had a blast making this video and added a gallery at the end with a few shots from each of us on the shoot, some music and voilà.  Anyway I hope you enjoy it…

Foto Friday : New Free Photography eBook…

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Long time readers of my blog will remember that last year I wrote a series of posts called ‘Foto Friday’ on the basics of photography.  This was before I split my blog into two, moving the photography stuff over here.  The posts were aimed at people who want to do more but aren’t very confident on the technical aspects.

Well I really pleased to tell you that these posts have formed the foundation on an ebook which I’ve written called ‘Photography – A Starting Point’.  As of now it’s available for download and it’s FREE!

If you’d like a copy then either click on the image above or click here to go to the download page.  Let me know what you think won’t you Smile

Foto Friday : It’s back! (well sort of)

ebook-cover

Last year I wrote a series of blog posts about the basic techniques of photography and was over whelmed by how well they were received.  I loved writing them and eventually made the decision to split my blog keeping this for crafting, while starting a new photography blog.

Those posts, however seemed to linger and have now evolved into an eBook.  The book itself is finished and we’re just waiting for a download issue to be resolved.  Once that is done it will be available to download in a couple of clicks.  It’s also going to be completely FREE!  Yes you read that correctly, free, at no cost, gratis.

That brings us back to Foto Friday.  During the creation of the book I asked some people to read it from a beginners view point.  What surprised me was that often as not, they would ask what the next one was going to be about.  Errrr – next one?  Hmmmm……

So it looks like Foto Friday has some new topics.  There will be some changes though such as I’m thinking of fortnightly rather than weekly.  Also when I asked about topics to cover people mentioned composition a lot.  So a look at some of the ideas in composition it will be.

Along side those posts I’m toying with the idea of mobile phones.  My good friend Heidi, who loves her new Nikon DSLR, has sheepishly confessed she still uses her Canon point and shoot more.  She’s familiar with it and it’s much easier to carry around.  Most of us will have a mobile with a camera on it.  So perhaps this would be something people would be interested in?  What do you think?  I will leave you with that question and as soon as the book is ready for download I’ll let you know.

More about those sewing machines…

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Some people see nostalgia as a dirty word, one used by old people unable to keep up with the times.  I think we’re very fortunate in the crafting world that this doesn’t hold sway.  We know that newer doesn’t always mean better and we can appreciate craftsmanship from the past.

sewing 2Don’t get me wrong I love my modern sewing machine, but I can certainly appreciate the beautiful of some of the old completely manual machines.  They are objects of beauty in their own right.  So when I found all of these being used as a display in a shop on Portobello Road in London, I thought I’d died and gone to sewing machine heaven!

I took quite a few shots with my main camera but I couldn’t resist taking my mobile out and playing with it’s panorama features.  These shots are straight off the mobile phone and not as good a quality as I normally like to share.  I do think however that the give you a better idea of the numbers of these gorgeous machines.

There were hundreds of them and all designed to be operated without the benefit of electricity.  As my companions were all photography rather than crafting people they saw the attraction initially but soon wandered off for other photo opportunities leaving me dribbling in the shop. 

I can’t help wondering what tales they could tell of sewing exploits.  Most were in immaculate condition although they did show signs of wear and a little rust in places.  There is certainly no way my Brother machine will last anywhere near as long as these.  Don’t get me wrong I love it to bits and probably should have replaced it a couple of years ago when it first started giving me problems – but it’s not crafted the way these beauties are.

Nostalgia…

I’ll do a longer post about these later (when I’ve finished going through the photos) but I just had to share with you……

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London-PB-26-watermark

A New Beginning–in a slightly new place

If you’ve been following my blog for a while you’ll have noticed that there has been an increasing number of posts on photography.  This has worried me a little as I didn’t want to bore people with posts on things that don’t interest them.  So I’ve decided to start a second blog on photography.  This little corner of the net from now on will be about crafting and the photo stuff will move over there.

You can find it at blog.fantasiaphoto.co.uk and to try and tempt you over here is a shot which I’ll be posting about later this evening….

 

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A Crisis Averted

Last year I placed myself on a sock yarn buying ban.  My stash was growing rapidly to alarming proportions in this area, and while I personally think it’s impossible to have to much yarn – it is possible to have to much to store!  So I went on a yarn diet.  No more sock yarn till I used up what I had.  This happened by Christmas and during the holidays I bought 2 more balls from a local yarn shop.  One I loved and the other I hated, but I’ve already blogged about them here. So I was terrified when I realised about 10 days ago that I was just hours from finishing my last ball of sock yarn.  There was the going cold all over and breaking out in a sweat, the gnashing of teeth, and probably a little bit of whimpering until I had another ball safely tucked away in my bag to take home.

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Hot Socks Casablanca in colour 55.

So what I have got?  Some further internet shopping secured a little bit more as no one wants to see a grown woman cry when she can’t have socks on her needles!

The top shot is of the ‘emergency’ ball that was hastily purchased to avert the lack of socks crisis.  The yarn itself is lovely but the colours – not so good.  They’ve not come out very well in that shot but they just don’t seem to work together very well.

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Wendy Happy Bamboo Colour2519 Fjord

This is my first time knitting with Wendy Happy and also my first sock bamboo yarn.  The colours are very pretty pastels and I’m looking forward to seeing how it knits up.  I’ll admit to some concerns about stretching once finished though because of the bamboo.

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Jawoll Magic Degrade Colour 7310

Still in it’s packed but the colour looks lovely and more red than in this shot.

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Schoppel Wolle Zauberball – Can’t remember the colour

I have friends who rave about this yarn so I thought I’d give it a go.  My initial feeling is one of disappointment, it’s much pinker than I imagined from the photos online.  I’m not really a pink person but I’ll try to reserve judgement till I see how it knits up.  Perhaps the white and green bits will win me over.

Finally those shots were taken with my mobile because although my proper camera is in fine working order, the ‘big’ pc isn’t.  So while I can take shots, I can’t upload them.  New parts are on order and hopefully this problem will be sorted next week!  In the meantime I thought I’d leave you with a flower shot from last year.

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Dan of Ipswich

Yesterday I went out for a ‘Photowalk’ around Ipswich with my good friend Miss H.  For ‘Photowalk’ read a meander around the shops with our cameras.  The purpose behind this was not just to spend a pleasant afternoon together but to help her get to grips with her first DSLR a very niffty Nikon.  Miss H is new to photography but enjoying herself.

Naturally there was much chatting and as we wandered round, cameras in hand, I heard a voice call out asking if I wanted to take a photo.  Turning round I saw a man sitting in a door way.

Dan-of-Ipswich

This is Dan.  I took his photo and we chatted for a little while.  I’m not a great one for street photography and rarely take photos of people.  However Dan was happy to pose and I just couldn’t resist.  He was a little vague about how he ended up sat in that doorway on the cold floor, but seemed grateful for the money I gave him to get a hot drink.  As Miss H and I walked away we started looking round to see what else, and who else, we were just walking past.  Dan had been charming and articulate, and I had just been walking past as if he didn’t exist.  Food for thought…